After months of little change, precipitation in May put a major dent in Prairie drought.
The latest monthly update of the Canadian Drought Monitor on Friday showed 67% of Prairie agricultural lands impacted by abnormal dryness or some form of drought as of the end of last month – down sharply from 99% in April.
The most significant drought improvements were seen through the southern Prairies, where an upper-level low provided cooler and unsettled conditions and brought well above-normal precipitation throughout May, the monitor said.
On a national basis, moderate to exceptional drought fell by 17% from April.
In Alberta, abnormally dry to severe drought conditions were removed throughout the Foothills area towards Calgary and further south near the Canada-US border. Exceptional and extreme drought conditions were also removed across southeastern Alberta. However, small pockets of severe drought remain around Red Deer and across the Special Areas in east central Alberta, as longer-term deficits were not fully alleviated.
But while most regions of the province saw significant drought improvement, northwestern Alberta - particularly in the Peace Region - missed any meaningful precipitation. “The Peace Region faced growing precipitation deficits, wildfire concerns and low stream flows,” the monitor said.
Large regions of drought were reduced or removed across Saskatchewan due to May precipitation. Severe and extreme drought was removed across southern parts of the province, in addition to a significant reduction in moderate drought and abnormally dry conditions. Only a small pocket of moderate drought remained around North Battleford as recent precipitation was not sufficient to completely alleviate drought conditions in that area.
Despite much of the precipitation reaching into northern Saskatchewan, a small pocket of severe drought remained north of La Ronge.
Southern Manitoba saw significant improvement to severe to moderate drought and abnormally dry conditions last month. A swath of moderate drought conditions was also cut back in north central Manitoba, but the rest of northern Manitoba saw minimal drought changes as long-term precipitation deficits and wildfires remained across the area.
